2011 Suburban. Sensor turns head lights on as designed. Dash lights come on as designed at night and I can adjust intensity of brightness. However during day light hours, I can barely see instrument lights and I cannot adjust them to higher intensity. I am stumped.

 

Make sure the sensor on the dash is not covered or blocked by anything. It apparently thinks it is night time.

 

I don't know what to tell you. The sensor is high and dry and never has anything covering it. Still stumped.

 

This problem has not been addressed by GM on any of these vehicles as far as I can tell. There should be separate backlighting that is adjustable similar to the instrument cluster LEDs but there are none. So the only way that you can see the cluster during the daylight is by turning the headlights on or using the parking lights as running lights. This is almost incredible! I looked at the cluster in detail and can find no way that separate lights can easily be installed.

I think what I would try is to install single LED in each of the instrument wells along the periphery of the cluster in holes drilled in the wells. By powering them from a source that is on when the lights are off, but off when the lights are on. I think that somewhere such a power source is available. If not, just a switch to allow one to turn it on.

I really would like to believe that GM really didn't leave unanswered such a obvious problem all this time. Typical.

 

The 2007 Tahoes and Suburbans had no daytime illumination but they fixed it on the 2008s. My 2010 Tahoe had it.

 

Not according to the diagrams - how did they do it? Or how do you turn it on? The reason that I question that statement is that they used the same cluster but on second thought they might have wired it to the 12 vdc power so that it is on all of the time. I might look at the difference in the diagrams again.

Update: If I am reading the diagram correctly, it appears that the power for the lamps comes from the BCM which is powered all of the time. The BCM provides power to the dimmer circuit and receives a signal back from it. The circuit is completed to ground, but if in the switch positions for Park and Head, the prk lp sw sig is grounded while in off and auto it is not. The power for the LEDs and the instrument panel are all from the same source: the Yellow wire out of the BCM so we cannot tell just when the BCM allows power to the lights because it is under computer control. Yuck! That means as you have suggested, it might be different for every automobile, depending on how the BCM is programmed.

To fix it for vehicles where it doesn't occur, one would have to reprogram the BCM or intercept the power to the lights of the instrument cluster and connect it to the wire called IGN (ignition). Should work.